title: Liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry method for determination of N-acetylcysteine in human plasma using an isotope-labeled internal standard.
abstract: A liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method was developed to determine total N-acetylcysteine in human plasma. Mass spectrometric detection was achieved in positive electrospray ionization and multiple reaction monitoring mode. The mass transition pairs of N-acetylcysteine and the isotope-labeled internal standard d3-N-acetylcysteine were 164 → 122 and 167 → 123, respectively. The method was linear over the range of 10-5000 ng/mL in human plasma. The adoption of trichloroacetic acid significantly enhanced the extraction recovery. The blank matrix was screened to minimize the influence of endogenous N-acetylcysteine. After being fully validated, the method was successfully applied to the pharmacokinetic and bioequivalent study of N-acetylcysteine after oral administration of 600 mg tablets to 24 healthy Chinese volunteers.
authors.affiliation: Central Laboratory, Shanghai Xuhui Central Hospital, 966 Middle Huaihai Road, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Chuan
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.forename: Gangyi
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Jingying
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jia
authors.forename: Yuzhou
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Gui
authors.forename: Yanmei
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Mengqi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Yun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Shuijun
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Chen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Yu
mesh_terms: D000111:Acetylcysteine / Q000031:analogs & derivatives / Q000097:blood* / Q000493:pharmacokinetics; D002853:Chromatography, Liquid / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D004355:Drug Stability; D006801:Humans; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D012015:Reference Standards; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D053719:Tandem Mass Spectrometry / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D013810:Therapeutic Equivalency; D014238:Trichloroacetic Acid / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D014238:Trichloroacetic Acid; D000111:Acetylcysteine